US Army to Reconsider Strategy to Fight ISIL

US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, said Saturday the US military will review its strategy to combat the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) terrorist organization.

“We’re going to review that, obviously,” Dunford said speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum, adding that “the president-elect has indicated he wants to review that.”

“We met with the transition team on Wednesday and began a dialogue that will be ongoing here over the next several weeks,” he said.

Dunford said the military was “never complacent” in its fight against ISIL and had made “some significant progress” against it, including shrinking the group’s territory in Iraq, striking its resources there and in Syria and disrupting its ability to plan and carry out external attacks.

“We’ll make sure that, as we go through transition, they understand what that policy framework is, they understand where there may be some flexibility to make changes in that policy framework, which will then inform maybe some course and speed corrections to our strategy,” he added.

Dunford said he wouldn’t speak more specifically because he owes it to the incoming Trump administration to “have that conversation in private first and then afford our decision-makers a chance to make a decision.”